Attendance

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Everyone Values Education. Everyone Attends Every Day!

At Victoria Primary School, we emphasize the importance of regular and punctual school attendance. We all believe that through good attendance, children will achieve higher attainment, have better opportunities and establish good habits that will support them throughout their lives.

Our Attendance Lead is Miss Anna Byrne.

Attend every day

A strong school community is one where all children are present in school, on time, every day. By attending regularly, your child will benefit from a wide range of valuable educational opportunities. We understand that every family’s situation is different, and there may be times when you're unsure if your child should attend school.

At Victoria Primary School, we actively promote and encourage daily attendance to ensure children do not miss out on important learning experiences, both within the classroom and beyond. We place high importance on communicating with parents and carers about the value of regular and punctual attendance. We also recognise the crucial role parents play and are committed to building strong home–school links to support attendance.

If children do not attend school every day, they may:

• Struggle to keep up with their school work. In a busy school day, it can be challenging to find extra time for children to catch up.
• Miss out on the social aspects of school life. Poor attendance can affect a child’s ability to make and maintain friendships, an essential part of their development.
• Develop poor attendance habits that can carry into later life. Employers value reliability, and good attendance in school lays the foundation for success in future education and employment.

Victoria Primary School will:

• Work to ensure that all pupils feel supported, valued, and have a strong sense of belonging to our school community.
• Encourage parents and carers to take an active role in promoting regular attendance.
• Keep parents and carers regularly informed about their child’s attendance and how many days they have missed.
• Notify parents and carers when an absence has not been authorised.
• Promote a positive and supportive attitude among staff when children return after an absence.
• Ensure the headteacher and governors regularly evaluate our attendance policy and practices.
• Maintain consistent and thorough monitoring and evaluation procedures.

How do we promote attendance at Victoria Primary School?

At Victoria Primary School, attendance is our number one priority — and we love to celebrate it!
We reward good attendance in a variety of exciting ways to keep children motivated and to recognise the important role families play in getting children to school every day.

Extra Playtime

Each week, the class with the highest attendance wins an extra playtime—a fun way to celebrate teamwork and commitment!

Most Improved Attendance

At the end of every term, five children with the most improved attendance receive a £15 gift card for Amazon or Sainsbury’s. This is a special reward for the whole family, recognising the effort and changes made by parents and carers.

Experiences and Trips

Children with excellent attendance may be invited to enjoy special activities and outings—these have included sports experiences, inflatables, school discos, and exciting trips like ice skating.

"In It to Win It" Weeks

During our themed attendance weeks, any child with 100% attendance gets the chance to win one of three fun prizes. Winners are chosen at random, and past prizes have included:

Chip cobs

Movie afternoons

Football raffle prizes

Holidays During Term Time

At Victoria Primary School, we ask all parents and carers to complete a holiday request form if they are considering taking their child out of school during term time.

However, in line with government guidance, we do not authorise holidays during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. For full details, please see:
https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence

What Is an Unauthorised Holiday?

Holidays taken during term time are recorded as code G (unauthorised leave).

In rare and exceptional cases, the Headteacher may authorise an absence—such as for service personnel returning from overseas duty. Even in these situations, we will consider factors such as:

The year group of the child

Any assessments or key learning taking place during the requested dates

Penalty Notices

Please be aware:

A Penalty Notice may be issued for any unauthorised holiday, whether or not a request form was submitted.

If it is found that a child has been taken on holiday without informing the school, a Penalty Notice may still be requested even after the child returns.

We appreciate your support in ensuring that your child attends school regularly and avoids missing important learning time.

Why Might an Absence Be Unauthorised?

At Victoria Primary School, we understand that there may be times when your child needs to miss school—for example, if they are unwell. In these cases, please follow our usual procedure for notifying the school about your child's illness.

However, there are times when an absence may be unauthorised. To help parents and carers understand what this means, we’ve provided the following guidance:

Medical and Dental Appointments
We kindly ask that all medical or dental appointments are arranged outside of school hours wherever possible.
If your child does need to attend an appointment during the school day, we expect them to be in school before and/or after the appointment, depending on its timing.

Please note: If a child misses the entire school day for a short appointment, we may have to record part of their absence as unauthorised (either AM or PM).

Absence Requests
Any planned absence should be requested in advance and can only be authorised by the school. The headteacher has the discretion to approve or decline the request based on government guidelines and the reason given.

Term-Time Holidays
Holidays during term time will not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances, as defined by the Department for Education.
Taking your child out of school for a holiday without authorisation may result in the absence being recorded as unauthorised and could lead to a fixed penalty notice.

Illness

Is my child too ill for school?

If you decide that your child is unable to attend school due to illness the following procedure applies:

• If a child is absent from school parents should contact the school on the 1st day of absence by 9:15 am to inform the school of the reason for absence.

• Parents are expected to maintain contact with the school throughout the absence.

It is a school’s decision whether to accept a reason for a child’s absence and whether to authorise that absence. In the majority of cases a parents’ note explaining that their child was ill can be accepted without question. Further evidence of a child’s illness may be requested if their attendance is an ongoing concern.